Device for regulating balance-wheels.



w, E. PORTER; DEVICE FOR REGULATING BALANCE WHEELS.

APPLICATION FILED OCT- 9, I916- Patented May 22, 1917.

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, ings constitute UNITED STATES PATENT! OFFICE.

WILSON E. PORTER, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO NEW HAVEN CLOCK (30., OENEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION- DEVICE FOR REGULATING BALANCE-WHEELS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILSON E. PORTER,

and State of Connecticut,.have invented a new and useful Improvement in Devlces .for

Regulating Balance-Wheels; and I do here by declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying. drawings and the characters of reference marked thereon, to beat full, clear, .and exact description of the same, and which said drawpart of this application, and represent, -in V V 4 Figure 1 a view in front elevation of a device for regulating balance-wheels, em

bodying my invention. V

Fig. 2 a plan view thereof.

Fig. 3 a view in transverse vertical section on the line 33 of Fig. 2, of the rocking balance-wheel carrier shown as detached, and

on the double scale. C g

Fig. 4 a longitudinal sectional view thereof onthe same scale as the preceding'figure: Fig. 5 a broken detail plan view. show-.

ing the means employed for frictionally holding the end of the hair-spring to be adjusted. V

My invention relates to an improved device for regulating and standardizing the balance-wheels of marine clock-movements and of watch-movements, the object being to produce, for the purpose described, a simple, accurate and compact device constructed with particular reference to convenienceof operationand. to reliability in startlng the master balanceewh'eel and the balance-wheel to be regulated at exactly the same time, that being essential to accuracy of result.

With these ends in view, my invention.

consists in a device for regulating the balance-wheels of clocks and. watches, having certain" details of construction as will be hereinafter described and pointed out in the Specification of Letters Patent.

The said carrier is provided with a centrally arranged shaft 15 passing through the lower edgesof its plates 7, 8 and 9 and journaled Patented May 22, 1917. 7 Application filed October 9, 1916. Serial No. 124,562.

at its ends in the upper ends of substantially triangular front and rear frame-plates 16 and 17 secured together by pillars 18 or in any other suitable manner.

For the purpose of rocking the carrier, I mount a pinion 19 upon its shaft 15 for engagement'by a segmental rack 20 mounted on a shaft 21 journaled at its ends in the plates 16 and 17 at'a point directly below the said shaft 1 5, the said rack 20 being furnished with an outwardly extending handlever 22 which is depressed for rocking the carrier, the rocking movement of which is mounted upon one of the pillars l8, and in the opposite direction by a buffer stud 2 1 projecting forward from the rear-frame plate 17. A helical spring 25 secured to the right hand pillar. 10 of the carrier and to the front frame-plate 16 provides for returning the carrier to its upright position in which it rests against the buifer-stud 24 and in which it is normally maintained by the tension of the said spring.

The master balance-wheel 5' and its hairspring 26 are mounted on a balance-staff 27, the outer end of the said spring being selimited in one direction by a flat, spring 23 cured to a tie-block 28 in the intermediate double ended bearing-screw 30 mounted in the intermediate carrier-plate 8.. The bal ance-wheel 6 to be adjusted and its hairspring 31 are mounted upon a balance-staff 32'journale'd in the forward cup of the double ended bearing-screw 30 and in the inner-end of a long cupped bearing-screw 33 furnished at its outer end witha finger-button 34 and mounted in the front plate-7. i V

The outer end of'the hair-spring 31, is entered into a shallow positioning-notch. 35

in the, outer face of a finger 36 formed upon 1 a stud 37 riveted into the frontplate 7, the

said spring being held in the saidnotch by the flattened upper end 38 of a gripping-arm 39 mounted in a rock-shaft 40 journaled between the plates 7 and 8, the said shaft 40 being also provided with a releasing-arm 41 extending from rightto left and designed for manual operation. A helical spring42 connecting the gripping-arm 39 with a pin 43 in the plate 7, provides the power required for pinching the end of the hairspring 31 between the flattened upper end 38 of the gripping-arm 39 and the bottom of the shallow notch 35.

In the use of my invention, the master balance-wheel 5 and its hair-spring 26 are nicely adjusted so as to have the correct number of oscillations per second for the clock or watch in which the balance-wheels to be regulated are to be used. In other words, the master balance-wheel 5 and its hair-spring 26 are standardized.

Preparatory to the introduction into the device of a stock balance-wheel, the screw 33 is unscrewed so as to widen the space be tween its cupped inner end and the cupped forward end of the double-ended screw 30. The rear pivot of the staff 32 of the stock balance-wheel 6 to be adjusted, is now inserted into the cupped forward end of the double-ended bearing-screw 30 after which the screw 33 is turned home so as to provide a bearing for the forward pivot of the staff 32. The free end of the hair-spring 31 of the stock balance-wheel is then inserted into the positioning-notch 35 of the arm 36 and frictionally held by the pressure of the end 38 of the gripping-arm 39, the amount of pressure being determined by the tension of the spring 42. The balance-wheels 5 and 6 are now brought to absolute rest after which the hand-lever 22 is smartly depressed with the effect of rocking the rocking carrier from right to left, into the position shown by dotted lines in Fig. l. Pressure being removed from the hand-lever 22, the spring 25 immediately restores the carrier to its upright position. The described rocking of the carrier initially sets the two balance-wheels oscillating simultaneously, but this continues only for an instant, after which the balance-Wheel to be regulated will begin to oscillate slower or faster than the master balance-wheel according to the initial positioning of its hair-spring 31. The workman now moves the free end of the hair-spring through the notch 35 in one direction or the other until the oscillation of the balancewheel 36 synchronizes perfectly with the oscillation of the master balance-wheel 5. When this occurs, the end of the spring 31 is bent over, as shown by broken lines in Fig. 3, upon the upper edge of the flattened end 38 of the gripping-arm 39 to mark the point at which it must be held in a clock-movement of the series to which it belongs. The bearing-screw 33 is then unscrewed by its knurled button 3st, permitting the balancewheel 6 to be removed and replaced by another balance-wheel to be adjusted, and so on.

I claim 1. In a device for adjusting the balancewheels of clocks and watches, the combination with a rocking balance-wheel carrier mounting the master balance-wheel and the balance-wheel to be adjusted with their axes in line, and means for rocking the said carrier to simultaneously start the said wheels in oscillation.

2. In a device for adjusting the balancewheels of clocks and watches, the combination with a rocking balance-wheel carrier mounting the master balance-wheel and the balance-wheel to be adjusted with their axes in line, means for rocking the said carrier for simultaneously starting the said wheels in oscillation, and means for limiting the re turn rocking movement of the carrier, where by the same is positioned for the adjustment of the hair-spring of the wheel to be adjusted.

3. In a device for adjusting the balance wheels of clocks and watches, the combination with a frame, of a rocking balancewheel carrier journaled therein and constructed to mount the master balance-wheel and the balance wheel to be adjusted, and a rack-and-pinion for rocking the carrier.

4:. In an apparatus for adjusting the balance-wheels of clocks and watches, the combination with a frame, of a rocking balancewheel carrier journaled therein and comprising three plates spaced apart and secured together, means for rocking the said carrier and normally maintaining it in itsupright position, means mounted in the said carrier for ournaling therein a master balance-wheel and the balance-wheel to be regulated, and means for frictionally holding the outer end of the hair-spring of the balance-wheel to be adjusted.

In testimony whereof, I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

WILSON E. PORTER.

Witnesses:

C. L. WEED, M. P. NIoHoLs.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. (3. 

